Bridgwater captain Steffan Jones urges batsman to up their game

BRIDGWATER captain Steffan Jones has called on his batsman to up their game and “take more responsibility” as they head into the second half of the season.

Jones' Bridgy side went down by eight wickets at Corsham on Saturday (full report page __) to leave them sixth in WEPL Premier One - and the former Somerset seamer says Bridgwater have struggled to replace the runs of Michael Coles, who left to join Corsham at the beginning of this season.

Coles was at his destructive best on Saturday, smashing an unbeaten 150 to defeat his former side.

Jones said: “At the start of the season I was confident that we would be a strong side and competing at the top, but we've lost three games now and won four, so it hasn't quite worked out that way.

“Aside from yesterday, we haven't been able to runs on the board, which was always going to be the issue.

“We've struggled to replace Michael Coles, who I would say is one of the best club cricketers in the country, let alone the region - and he got runs on Saturday.

“The batsmen really need to start taking a lot more responsibility and standing up to the challenge. We've got players who have been around for a long time and we need them to step up.

“When we win games, we win them convincingly because we've got the best bowling attack in the league, although we didn't show that yesterday.

“We don't necessarily need players to score big hundreds, just three players to maybe get thirty or forty.

“But it's not all doom and gloom, I'm confident we can bounce back and get wins in the next two weeks.”